Becoming “American Horror Story: Coven’s” Minotaur isn’t the most striking transformation New Orleans actor Ameer Baraka has undergone. Which is not to say it’s easy: Four hours in a makeup chair, then hours more sitting bolt upright and nearly naked on the freezing set to keep the anchoring gear for the prosthetic, radio-controlled Minotaur head in place between takes makes for a long workday.

“I was excited to work with prosthetics, because I’d never really done it before,” Baraka said. “I was very, very excited until around the second day.

“It was tough being in that suit. You're just dying to get it off, the head part. It's extremely hot in there because there’s no cooling system. There’s an electrical system that makes the ears move and everything. You’re constantly hearing this ‘woo-woo-wooing.’ You can’t hear anything outside, but inside the mask you hear that.

“I see why people like Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence get paid so much. Having that on all day, it’s horrible.”

Baraka made his debut on the show in its premiere episode, playing a slave who sparks the ire of Bates’ evil character, based on French Quarter ghost-tour specter Madame Delphine LaLaurie.

“I’ve always wanted to play the role of a slave,” Baraka said. “I was so enthralled because I felt how my people felt 200 years ago. Being a house slave, being under the control of this very mean and sadistic and unforgiving woman, made it all real for me. Everyone was dressed in their costumes. I was serving drinks, and I had to bow my head and not look them in the eyes. I said, ‘My God, I can imagine what my great-great-grandfather went through.’ It was a touching piece for me.”

Ameer Baraka.Courtesy of Ameer Baraka

Also professionally fulfilling.

“Kathy gave me this look,” he said. “She came out of the foyer into the living room and she looked at me. It was just a powerful look. I knew I was in the presence of greatness when she gave me that look. Her delivery, she was amazing. I’m so grateful to work with her.”

Baraka had once visualized just such a professional opportunity – albeit minus the mythological bull’s head – while spending time in a most unlikely setting for a would-be actor: prison.

Raised in the B.W. Cooper Apartments, known locally as the Calliope Projects, Baraka had undiagnosed dyslexia that doomed him in school.

“I found a home in the streets,” he said. “I found a home with drug dealers out of the Calliope Projects. I knew all the major drug dealers in the city as a little boy.”

Baraka would eventually come to know the inside of correctional institutions. A stay in California between stretches in jail, and pickup work on a film crew there, provided a vision of a different life. Baraka said he worked on shoots that put him near both Tupac Shakur and NFL great Jim Brown.

“I'd never seen a black man living like that,” Baraka said of Brown, a film star and activist in his football retirement. “I just didn't think that black people had money. I was in the projects. I was around poor people, so I had this mentality that we can't get over the tracks. I saw Jim Brown and I thought, ‘I’ve got to get a life like this.’”

Baraka also studied the life of actor Charles S. Dutton, who came from an equally rough background to become a successful actor and director.

Imprisoned back in Louisiana one last time on an earlier charge, he studied for his G.E.D. and pictured the life he could lead when he got out.

“I would get up early in the morning before people got up,” he said. “I would praise God. ‘I thank you for my acting career. I thank you for all the jobs I have.’ I was visualizing. That is the key. If you can see it, it will manifest.”

It’s a lesson Baraka shares with the participants in various New Orleans youth programs he participates in, including NOLA for Life.

“I believe in the mayor’s vision for NOLA for Life,” said Baraka, who’s also appeared at Hope Academy with Percy “Master P” Miller (another role model due to their shared Calliope history).

At the moment a vehicle for “American Horror Story: Coven” co-creator Ryan Murphy’s vision of paranormal New Orleans – a new episode airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday (Oct. 30) on FX -- Baraka studied online videos of angry wildlife before auditioning for the Minotaur role.

“Being a physical guy, I knew what they were looking for,” he said. “I did so much weird stuff to get this role. I didn’t know anything about ‘American Horror Story’ at all. They didn’t divulge anything to me. They just wanted me to act like this bull, or an angry lion or an angry bear. Fortunately enough, I was able to give them that.”